


Cat People

by theparanoidergosphere



Series: The Eternal Lives of Stefan Salvatore & Caroline Forbes [2]
Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Cats, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 06:35:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4468988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theparanoidergosphere/pseuds/theparanoidergosphere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Caroline becomes a cat person, and so does Stefan. Because, really, he'd do anything for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cat People

Four years after moving from Mystic falls to Indiana, Caroline brought home a cat. He was a tiny orange thing; snaggle-toothed, astonishingly malnourished, and covered in soot. Stefan’s nose had been buried deep inside a book for ethics class when he heard her waltz into the room and he raised his head to see her holding the scraggly creature in the cranny of one of her arms. Stefan said nothing, didn’t even flinch, just let his gaze move back and forth between his wife and the fur ball in her arms, one eyebrow arched in question.

“I found him rummaging through a trash can. The poor thing looked starving… who knows who left him there, kicked him to the side of the road…” Stefan watched Caroline’s fingers gently rub the cat’s neck as she spoke. 

She huffed. “Look, he’s poor and starving and all alone in this world. And, unfortunately, vampirism didn’t manage to destroy my maternal instincts. So I don’t want to hear about it,” she spat defensively.

And that was that. 

They named him Rhett, after Gone with the Wind’s stunning male lead. He was terrified of everything at first, but after months of patience and unconditional love, the little creature grew to be as loving and warm as a cat can be. 

Rhett loved Stefan, loved especially the attention he received from Stefan, loved to curl up in his lap while he was sitting at his desk to journal or read. Loved to rub his head against his legs when he wanted to be fed. But Rhett was bonded to Caroline especially, in a way that only a savior and the saved could understand.

That cat worshipped the ground she walked on, quite literally, and seemed unnervingly in tune with her emotions. When Caroline would drag herself into their apartment, exhausted from a long day of bridezillas and conceited caterers and all the other nightmares of a wedding planner, he’d be waiting at the edge of their bed, ready to snuggle up against her side as comfort. 

Rhett’s death shouldn’t have been shocking – he lived a long, happy 19 years. Toward the end he had gone slightly blind, and hobbled on four weak limbs. Still, he had never acted anything but content and loving, and waking up to his still body at the floor of their bed jarred Caroline.

 In a moment of helpless, agonized, panic, she cut into her own arm and attempted to feed her blood to the lifeless being before her.  That is where Stefan had found her, sobbing and muttering “pleases” over and over again to their late companion. Stefan knelt to the floor beside her, wrapped her in his arms and, like he always had, wished he had the power to absorb away her pain through his own skin. 

Caroline allowed herself 20 minutes of grief before swallowing her tears and marching through the pain with a brave face.

They buried Rhett in the backyard, a rock painted in the same fiery hue as his fur marked his grave. 

“I’m so sorry Caroline,” Stefan had said. 

“We’re eternal, Stefan. 19 years is like a second on our timeline. It’s nothing. I’m just… I’m happy he’s found peace.”

It wasn’t nothing, of course. 

Stefan would wake in the wee hours of the morning to hear muffled cries into a pillow, the wails of a mother that lost a son, a mother who would never be a  _real_  mother, to a  _real_  baby – one that would outlive her, like he should. 

Stefan said nothing in those moments in the dark of night. Instead, he would roll himself over to her, secure her inside his arms, and press his lips to the exposed skin behind her ear, his fingers tracing figure-8s on the back of her hands until she fell back asleep.

Several months passed, and time, as it always does, eased the ache of grief. Caroline was once again happy and upbeat, and nothing warmed Stefan in quite the same way as seeing the dimples sunk into Caroline’s cheeks when she smiled – a sight he had missed deeply.

They talked about Rhett once and a while. Stefan would mention missing something to pet idly as he read, Caroline lamenting the loss of a live foot warmer. They would laugh then, and while their memories were no longer tinged with the same kind of sadness as before, Stefan could hear that what was previously grief was replaced with a kind of longing in Caroline’s voice.  A longing for another companion, someone that Caroline could look after and care for. A being with who she could channel the biological craving for motherhood. 

Eight weeks after the pair moved from Indiana to Rhode Island, Stefan opened their front door to Caroline sketching at their kitchen table. He closed it behind him with one hand, a tiny white ball of fur snuggled into his other palm.  
Caroline looked up briefly from her work, her eyes popped nearly out of her skull at the sight. She stared at the critter incredulously for a moment, before casting her gaze adoringly on her husband. 

Stefan swore he was a slave to that face; he would anything to see her squinted eyes and upturned lips, to be hit by the rays of happiness that radiated from her in grateful waves. 

He couldn’t help smiling as he said, “Look, I found him sniffing around in the hospital parking lot. The poor thing looked abandoned. So I don’t want to hear about it.” 

Caroline was beaming. 


End file.
